Militancy, Power, Antagonism: Two Meditations on the Space of Politics

Below is a piece I put together w/ MLA of Prodigies & Monsters for presentation at the Potentials of Performance symposium in October 26 – 27th in London by a group of Greeks who have occupied a closed-down theater owned by the Greek state since last November. Please enjoy.

Occupy speaks not only to the occupation of space, but to the politics of place. This piece offers two meditations on the space of power. The first offers a virtual topography that thinks the role of the intellectual within the university. The second is a working out of that theory that questions Occupy’s spatialization of autonomy. Together, the mediations propose a return to militancy, facilitated by topologies of power that circulate struggle in and through a political antagonism that refuses the totalizing and authoritarian tendencies of command.

Keywords: militancy/antagonism, the academy, cartography/spatialization of power, program/anti-command

Updates

Sorry for such intermittent posting, folks.

1. The so-called “Job Market” has taken up virtually all of my academic energy in the last three weeks. As I have now produced enough material to streamline this process, I am slowly getting back to work. Also, if you have any hot tips, send them my way!
2. Two journal articles have been revised and out for review. The super-secret review process makes sharing difficult. Once they get greenlighted, expect me to share portions of them on here.
3. I have plans to visit The Bay Area in November (for friends, Claire, and Ardent), Chicago in upcoming months (to see friends), and NOLA in January (for NAASN), plus anywhere that invites me for a job talk. If you are in these areas and want to meet up for coffee, or whatever, let me know.
4. Locally, a new collective I helped start is holding a November film series, and work around the infoshop is heating up. : D

The Social State (edited)

This post contained an draft version of a dissertation section. A more recent version is now available on the works page.